Chongqing - At 6:50 a.m. on Sept. 1, mist still hung over Tingxi Village in Chongqing’s Fengdu County as a white Hope Line van pulled up. Ten children with new schoolbags and red scarves lined up for their first ride of the fall semester.

Ten minutes later, the van rolled toward Tingxi Ferry, carrying the children along the first leg of their journey to school.

Children fasten their seat belts as they wait to travel to the ferry on the first day of the fall semester in Tingxi Village, Shizhi Town, Fengdu County, Chongqing. (Photo/Chongqing Daily)

Children get off the ferry and board a vehicle to continue their journey to school at a wharf in Gaojia Town, Fengdu County, Chongqing. (Photo/Chongqing Daily)

A long, difficult journey to school

Tingxi Village lies near the Yangtze River, where the mountainous terrain and the river make the daily journey to school difficult. As rural schools have been consolidated into fewer locations, attending school close to home has become a thing of the past for many children, leaving some with long and difficult journeys to school.

Before the Hope Line began operating, there were only two ways to get from Tingxi Village to Guihua School. By road, children had to walk half an hour to Shizhi Town before transferring to a rural bus that crossed the mountains, and the journey took more than two hours one way. By water, they had to walk more than two kilometers to the ferry, cross the river in about 10 minutes, and then walk for nearly another hour to reach school. Either way, parents had to accompany their children the whole way.

"Whichever route they took, their parents had to accompany them all the way," said a staff member at the village Party-Masses Service Center.

Standing beside the Home-School Liaison Station and watching her grandson, Qin Xuan, board the Hope Line van, 61-year-old Qin Sufang’s eyes reddened slightly. With Qin Xuan’s parents working away from home, his grandmother has been his primary caregiver. Now 12, Qin Xuan has entered sixth grade.

A child undergoes facial recognition before boarding a vehicle in Tingxi Village, Shizhi Town, Fengdu County, Chongqing. (Photo/Chongqing Daily)

"In the past, I had to get up before 5 a.m. to prepare breakfast," Qin Sufang recalled.

At first light, the grandmother and grandson would set off with flashlights, making their way through the darkness. When Qin Xuan was in first grade, it often took him an hour to walk the more than 2-kilometer mountain path to the ferry.

Rain made the trail even more difficult. Qin Xuan would often slip and end up covered in mud, so his grandmother always carried a change of clothes. If he got up late, there was sometimes no time to sit down for breakfast, so he had to take it with him and eat along the way.

The water route was shorter, but it was highly vulnerable to unpredictable weather in the reservoir area.

Heavy rain, strong winds and dense fog could suspend ferry services. Sometimes the ferry would not resume until noon. By the time Qin Sufang managed to get her grandson to school, he had already missed the entire morning’s classes, disrupting his studies. The long, early-morning journey also often left Qin Xuan short of sleep, making him tired and unable to concentrate in class.

With few other options, Qin Sufang rented a home near the school and lived there with her grandson, paying between 830 and 970 U.S. dollars a year. "After we started staying near the school, I simply couldn’t keep up with the farm work," she said.

They could return to the village only on weekends to tend their fields. With Qin Xuan’s parents earning modest incomes away from home, the rent weighed heavily on the family. Traveling by road was no better: bus fares cost about 2.20 U.S. dollars each way, and a round trip took three to four hours. The price in time and money left them little choice but to live near the school.

A safer, easier way to school

The situation changed when the rural school-commuting Hope Line was launched in the spring semester this year.

The Fengdu County Transport Commission launched a dedicated route linking nearby villages with Tingxi Ferry and local schools. The service connects five village communities, carrying children to and from the ferry.

Every morning at 6:50, the van enters the village to pick up students. At 7 a.m., the ferry departs on schedule. After the children cross the river, another Hope Line vehicle picks them up and takes them directly to the school gate.

A journey that once took more than two hours now takes just over half an hour.

"Now my grandson can sleep for more than two extra hours every day. He can have a hot breakfast at home and no longer has to travel in the dark," Qin Sufang said with a relieved smile. 

Children chat inside the vehicle on the first day of the fall semester in Gaojia Town, Fengdu County, Chongqing, Sept. 1, 2026. (Photo/Chongqing Daily)

The service has also made the journey to school more affordable, costing each student about 70 U.S. dollars per semester. Qin Sufang has given up the rental near the school, and her grandson now commutes from home each day. She can focus on the family’s farmland, while Qin Xuan can help tend the longan and orange trees after school. His parents, who work away from home, also worry less about his daily journey.

Fengdu operated 41 Hope Line routes during the spring semester and added 10 more this fall, bringing the total to 51 routes serving 13 towns and subdistricts and 17 primary and secondary schools. The routes now serve more than 700 rural students.

The county has also built an end-to-end safety system covering each journey from home to school and back. Parents or village officials see students onto the vehicles, designated escorts and transport operators ensure their safety along the way, and school staff meet them at the gate. Every Hope Line vehicle has BeiDou positioning and onboard monitoring systems connected to Yuyun’an, a digital transport safety platform that tracks each journey in real time.

(Li Jiayan, as an intern, also contributed to this report.)